Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures up 0.2% to 7,390.00
- Dow Average down 0.4% to 33,886.47
- Aussie down 1.1% to 0.6705 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield rose 6.8bps to 3.5128%
- Australia 3-year bond yield rose 1.2 bps to 2.96%
- Australia 10-year bond yield rose 4.7 bps to 3.32%
- Gold spot down 1.8% to $2,004.17
- Brent futures up 0.3% to $86.31/bbl
Economic Events
US stock futures rose slightly and major currencies held to narrow ranges in a cautious start to trading Monday after Treasury yields surged last week on rate-hike bets and shares on Wall Street ended lower Friday.
Contracts for Asian share benchmarks pointed to a mixed open, with Hong Kong down, Japan up and Australia marginally higher. As worries about the banking sector abate and inflation pressure persists in the US, investors have upped wagers for at least one more interest rate increase from Federal Reserve this year, which is rippling through global markets.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2% Friday, trimming its gain for the week to 0.8%, while The Nasdaq 100 managed to squeeze out a 0.1% gain over the five days, as policy-sensitive technology names like Microsoft Inc. and Apple Inc. dragged on the benchmark. Swaps traders upped bets for a rate increase by June and pricing suggests a quarter point hike has better than three-in-four odds for May.
Looking ahead to this week, investors are awaiting the release of the Fed’s Beige Book and commentary from officials including John Williams, Raphael Bostic, Loretta Mester and Lisa Cook. Markets were rattled last week after Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he favored more policy tightening in the central bank’s battle with inflation.
Treasury yields rose, with the rate-sensitive two-year jumping to trade around 4.1%, a weekly high, after a measure of March retail sales showed core readings declined less than estimated and the comments from Fed officials.
Other News
This heist suspect might be living on borrowed dime.
An estimated 2 million dimes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were jacked from a trailer in Philadelphia overnight, according to police.
Police made the discovery around 6 a.m. Thursday morning outside of a Walmart in Northeast Philly, where thousands of dimes were littered across the parking lot, WPVI reported.
About $200,000 worth of dimes were taken from the big rig. A total of $750,000 in coins were in the truck, police said.
The truck driver had picked up the dimes from the Philadelphia Mint on Wednesday, but decided to park the truck in the parking lot before going home to get some sleep ahead of his long drive to Florida, WPVI reported.
Philadelphia Police Capt. Jack Ryan said this is a common practice for truck drivers.
When the driver returned to the parking lot Thursday morning, the trailer door was open.
“They were trying to cross-load the dimes into other things. There are dimes all over the parking lot,” Ryan said.
(New York Post)
